


Battlefields and Persuasion: Three Conversations on the Topic of Having Children

by elizabethvaughan



Series: Braindead Alternate Universe (From Season Two on) [2]
Category: BrainDead (TV)
Genre: Also please know this "series" we keep posting has no official order yet, Arguing, F/M, I just aggressively love these two as parents don't hate me, In which Winona loves writing from Gareth's perspective and has no plans of stopping any time soon, Marriage, Talking About Kids, parenting, tagging is hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-28
Updated: 2016-10-28
Packaged: 2018-08-27 12:39:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8402077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizabethvaughan/pseuds/elizabethvaughan
Summary: Three conversations between Gareth and Laurel on the topic of having children.





	

September 27th, 2016

“How many kids do you want?”

They had just spent the past hour thoroughly enjoying their new bed in their new, much-nicer apartment uptown, and Gareth doesn’t know what made him ask her. He’s always wanted kids, or at least thought he did. Being raised in a conservative family instills its values deep. His parents had already started pressuring him by his senior year of college. They would have happily had twice the number of children that they did, and since neither of his sisters seemed likely to provide them with grandchildren, he sensed that they were not going to let go until he satisfied them in some way.

Laurel pulled back from him in surprise, eyes slightly narrowed. “Um, zero” she says, clearly caught off-guard by the question but definitive in her answer nonetheless.

“Why, how many kids do you want?” She asked after a second’s hesitation, still looking highly skeptical at the subject on the table.

Gareth paused, contemplating his own question.

“The normal amount? Like, five or six”

Laurel immediately performed a reprise of her original surprised face and pulled away once more. Gareth, considering his own answer, mirrored her actions. They sat like that for a good thirty seconds staring at the ceiling before Laurel finally said, in a voice almost devoid of emotion, “five or six is not a normal amount of kids Gareth”

“Maybe you’re right” was his only reply.

\- - -

November 27th, 2016

“Do you do anything but type on that laptop?”

They were sitting next to each other on an airplane back from LA. Laurel was leaning over the joint armrest in between them with her head on Gareth’s shoulder, and had just pulled out her trusty work computer. Adjusting it into a comfortable angle, she had just opened Photoshop when Gareth asked the question.

“I’ll have you know that I am using my downtime wisely. What else should I do when there is nothing happening?”

Gareth grinned as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder to deliberately hinder her work. “Excuse me, I take offence to that. I’ll have YOU know that I am your husband and I am happening right next to you”

Laurel laughed and playfully batted his arm away. “Are you just going to use that term as much as possible from now on?”

“You bet I will”

She groaned and leaned her head on his shoulder. They had only been married for about 40 hours and Gareth already figured that would be a common response to his use of the term. He couldn’t say that he minded much. He had been looking forward to this for a while.

“I can’t wait until we get home and can actually be a family. You, me, and our weird two-party politically-dueling family. Nothing says homey like Sunday dinner debate nights with the kids and the grandparents, everyone on a different side shouting at each other”

She rolled her eyes at him dramatically. “Oh, that’s right, you and your ten-kid delusion of a family or whatever it was”

“I didn’t say ten kids. I said the normal amount. Whatever that happens to be”

“Is there even a “normal” amount of kids? Like, is that a thing? No, wait. Here, Google it” At this she made a grab for his phone out of his hand, which he thankfully saw coming and jerked away from her just in time. 

“Hey, use your own phone”

She pouted at him. “You’re the one who wants something. I’m just checking to see that it is factually possible”

Rolling his eyes and sighing, he relinquished the phone to her outstretched hand. Sitting back, he watched as she entered his passcode (when did she learn that?!) and began searching her inquiry. After a minute, she began to laugh and looked up.

“Here it says the average number of children most families agree upon is 2.5. How do you even have 2.5 children? This is ridiculous”

Now it was Gareth’s turn to laugh. “I guess in our case that would mean we’d have one Republican, one Democrat, and one Libertarian? That’s going to be fun the first year they can all vote”

She tossed the phone back in his direction. “I hope our one-half kid is the Republican so it only counts as half a vote”

“Can you imagine the headlines? ‘Once again, the Healy-Ritter family manages to throw a monkey wrench in this year’s race by being the first-ever election to have a recorded half-vote for president’”

“Oh, god. With our luck that’s bound to happen no matter what we do. We’re officially doomed”

He pulled her over so they were back to their original position before the damned laptop emerged. “Come on, our family is going to be spectacular and you know it. Our 2.5 children will be model citizens no matter what party they choose”

She snorted as she burrowed her face into his shoulder, work now long forgotten. “In your dreams, Mr. Healy-Ritter. In your dreams”

\- - -

December 8th, 2016

“So what’s gonna happen if you get pregnant?” Gareth couldn’t help asking her one Sunday afternoon. She was sitting at the counter like a teenager doing homework, intently focused on some specific aspect of her documentary. Apparently it was highly captivating work, as it took her almost a full 30 seconds to respond to his question.

“Mmmm…what?” She asked absently, eyes still glued to the laptop screen.

“I asked what we plan on doing if you happen to get pregnant”

Now he has her full attention. She whips her head up and meets him eye-to-eye over her laptop screen.

“Why do you ask? Is someone planning on getting me pregnant?”

“No, I just wanted to know if we have a plan in case something happens seeing as we couldn’t seem to agree in previous conversations”

Now she’s wearing that signature eyes-narrowed jaw-tightened head-lowered look that to many meant RUN. AS FAST AS YOU CAN. SAVE YOURSELF. But Gareth was tired of running from this conversation. At this point, he would rather face her wrath full-on and emerge with a conclusion than avoid her inevitable anger forever. Okay, maybe not full-on Laurel wrath if possible, but he had weighed his options and a little annoyance seemed livable. Internally bracing himself, he bit down on his tongue and waited for her reply.

“Gareth, I don’t want to have this conversation right now”

“Laurel, we have to discuss it at some point. We got married knowing we were on opposite ends of the spectrum on this and need to face it eventually”

“Yes, but ‘eventually’ doesn’t mean right now. I’m busy. Leave me alone”

“Laurel. You’re just going to use that excuse next time I bring it up. And the next. We need to have this discussion while we’re both home and have some time”

She slammed the laptop screen down with far more force than necessary and stood up. Grabbing the device off the counter and hugging it to her chest, she turned to face him square on.

“You want to have this discussion now? Right now? Okay, fine. What’s going to happen if I happen to get pregnant by you on accident is that I am going to make my OWN GODDAMN DICISION what to do. It’s not yours, not your mom’s, not my mom’s, not your coworkers’, not ANYONE’S decision but mine. Understand? Are we clear? End of discussion” As soon as she was done speaking, she turned around and hurried out of the kitchen, head ducked down and still cradling her laptop.

Gareth let out the breath he didn’t know he had been holding and watched her go in complete silence. He hadn’t been hoping for it to be quick and easily resolvable (he knew Laurel too well for that), but he had at least been envisioning some semblance of a conversation with her. Which really, in hindsight, was rather dumb. He would honestly have to say that his least favorite trait of Laurel’s was her continual habit of aborting arguments by storming out of the vicinity. It was just one part of the endless paradox of being Laurel: her argumentative personality caved when her inability to commit took over. Slamming his fist in frustration on the counter, he slumped down with his face in his hands and mentally began preparing for an awkward evening. 

-

Later that night, Gareth was laying in the bed alone, aimlessly picking through a sports magazine from the pile by his side of the bed. The evening had passed with little disruption. They had kept their separate ways for a while, each reheating leftovers at different times and eating them alone. The only follow-up to their last conversation was an awkward meeting of eyes as they both entered the kitchen in search of ice cream before bed. Both of them had quickly averted their gaze, and retreated from the kitchen in the same stony silence in which they had entered. Now he was waiting to see if she was going to join him in bed. They had at some indefinable point in their relationship lost the need to have one person sleep on the couch, but the new tactic was the enter the bed once the other person was asleep. Silently, he waited, obviously awake but not provoking her to join him either. After a few minutes of this, she wordlessly entered the room and began washing up for bed. Without making a sound, she carefully climbed into her side of the bed and crawled under the covers. Gareth took this as a sign that she wanted to go to sleep, so he dropped his magazine on the floor and clicked off his bedside lamp. Turning so his back was towards her, he was starting to get drowsy when her voice startled him from a few feet away.

“I’m sorry”

Unable to bring himself to turn around, he said nothing. She took a deep breath and continued, unprompted.

“I’m sorry for what I said to you earlier. You’re right. We need to talk about this” Taking another deep breath, she continued: “but I’m not ready to have this conversation just yet. I’m just not there yet. I’m sorry. I think I need more time before we have another serious conversation about having kids. I’m still getting over the fact that I’m in a serious relationship, let alone married to someone. But Gareth, now we have time. No one is threatening us. We can take as much time as we need. And all I’m asking for is a little more time.”

He finally rolled over to look at her across the bed. She was propped up on one elbow and watching him hesitantly. He watched her for a couple of seconds before formulating his response.

“Laurel, you can have as much time as you want. I’m not saying we have to do anything right now. I just want to have a conversation with you. I’m just trying to phrase it in any way that doesn’t make you want to run, and it’s obviously not working. But if it’s time you want, just tell me. I just want to talk about it”

“I know you want to talk about it. And I have an answer to your earlier question. If something were to happen, I would tell you first. No doubt about it. There is no way I would make any sort of decision without you, and I hope you believe me”

At this, he broke his resolve to stay across the bed from her and reaches out to pull her into him. She relents immediately, and they stay locked in each other’s arms for what seemed like an eternity before Gareth finally speaks.

“I’m sorry Laurel. I shouldn’t have been so pushy with you. I understand if you want to wait and talk about this later”

After a brief pause and some consideration on his part, he adds one last statement as an afterthought. “Thank you for agreeing to talk to me if something happens”

She pulls away from him just far enough so that they are almost nose-to-nose against the sheets. “We survived the end of the word. Heck, we helped bring down an entire foreign SPECIES. If that’s not pretty damn badass, I don’t know what is. Whatever happens to us we’ll survive” Even in the darkness, he knows her well enough to tell by her tone that she’s smiling. Wrapping her up again, he allows her to bury her face in his shoulder before settling back into the pillows and whispering into her ear.

“Laurel, I look forward to surviving with you”

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happens when Winona tries to post stuff….. in the future I will stick to doing the writing. Abby can handle the uploading.  
> -  
> As I said earlier, I just really, really, REALLY love the thought of these two as parents. So have another long, rambling essay written on the subject. Also, apologies for the text formatting. Lastly, I can't name work for shit.


End file.
